Snap cuts workforce, plans to slow hiring

Snapchat’s corporate parent, Snap Inc., has laid off 18 employees from its recruiting division over the last week.

The cuts come as the social network looks to slow hiring in 2018.

In an e-mail to employees, CEO Evan Spiegel said company leaders would have to make “hard decisions” about underperforming employees, according to Business Insider, which first reported on the layoffs.

It’s not the first time Snap has laid off employees in recent months. In late September, the company pink-slipped a dozen employees from a marketing team focused on Spectacles, the company’s wearable camera-cum-sunglasses combo, as it restructured its hardware division.

Snap has grown rapidly in recent years. The app, which is blowing Facebook and Instagram out of the water in the teenage user demographic, has added 2,000 employees since the end of 2015, bringing its total count to 2,600.

Snap’s stock, which plummeted nearly 43 percent since the company’s March IPO, gained 2.1 percent on Friday, to $15.56.